Scientists at Imperial College London have developed an artificial intelligence tool that could speed up the discovery of treatments for heart disease and eventually support more personalised care. The technology, known as CardioKG, combines detailed heart scans with large medical databases to identify genes linked to cardiovascular conditions and predict which drugs may be most effective.

Cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of death and disability in the European Union, causing around 1.7 million deaths each year and affecting an estimated 62 million people, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Researchers hope the AI tool can help address this significant health burden by accelerating drug discovery and improving treatment outcomes.

CardioKG was built using heart imaging data from thousands of participants in the UK Biobank, including patients with atrial fibrillation, heart failure, and heart attacks, as well as healthy volunteers. By integrating genetic information, disease data, and drug profiles into a single knowledge graph, the researchers say the system can make more precise predictions about which medications could benefit patients with specific heart conditions.

“One of the advantages of knowledge graphs is that they integrate information about genes, drugs, and diseases,” said Declan O’Regan, group leader of the Computational Cardiac Imaging Group at Imperial College London. He added that including heart imaging in the model significantly improved the identification of new genes and potential drug therapies.

The study highlighted several drugs for potential repurposing. Methotrexate, commonly used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, was suggested as a possible therapy for heart failure, while gliptins, a class of diabetes medications, could benefit patients with atrial fibrillation. The analysis also indicated a potential protective effect of caffeine for some atrial fibrillation patients, although researchers stressed this does not justify changing caffeine consumption without medical advice.

The team aims to expand CardioKG into a dynamic, patient-focused framework that can capture disease progression over time. Khaled Rjoob, the study’s first author, said the approach could enable more personalised treatment strategies and help predict when diseases are likely to develop. “This will open new possibilities for personalised treatment and predicting disease trajectories,” he said.

Researchers also believe the underlying technology could be applied beyond heart disease, including for conditions such as brain disorders and obesity, offering a broader tool for accelerating medical research and drug development.

By combining AI, medical imaging, and genetic data, CardioKG represents a promising step toward more targeted therapies and improved outcomes for patients with cardiovascular disease, potentially transforming how clinicians understand and treat heart conditions in the future.

The difficulty known as “time blindness” is a recognised feature of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but experts stress it is not an automatic excuse for being late, and not everyone who struggles with punctuality has the condition.

Alice Lovatt, a musician and group-home worker from Liverpool, England, spent years facing stress and embarrassment over her chronic lateness. She frequently let down friends and worried about being on time for school or work.

“I just don’t seem to have that clock ticking in my head,” Lovatt said. It was only at the age of 22, when she was diagnosed with ADHD, that she realised her struggles had a name.

Time blindness refers to difficulty judging how long tasks will take or tracking the passage of time. It has been associated with ADHD and, in some cases, autism. The concept has been discussed in psychological research since the 1990s. In 1997, Russell Barkley, a retired clinical neuropsychologist at the University of Massachusetts, described it as “temporal myopia.” Recently, the idea has gained attention on social media, sparking debate about where a recognised neurological difficulty ends and general disorganisation or rudeness begins.

Experts say time blindness stems from executive function challenges in the frontal lobes. “Anyone can have issues with running late, just with ADHD there’s functional impairment,” said Stephanie Sarkis, a psychotherapist and author of 10 Simple Solutions to Adult ADD. She explained that time blindness can affect family life, work, social relationships, and financial management.

Stimulant medications commonly prescribed for ADHD can help reduce time blindness, Sarkis added. But she emphasised that chronic lateness does not automatically indicate ADHD.

Jeffrey Meltzer, a US therapist who works with people struggling to arrive on time, said there are multiple reasons for repeated lateness. Some avoid arriving early to escape small talk, often tied to anxiety. Others use tardiness to reclaim a sense of autonomy when they feel a lack of control in their lives. Meltzer compares it to “revenge bedtime procrastination,” where people stay up late to regain personal time after a busy day.

He also highlighted lateness driven by entitlement, in which people feel their time is more important than others’ and may make grand entrances or flout social norms to draw attention.

Despite the causes, experts say individuals remain responsible for how their behaviour affects others. Tools that help people with ADHD, such as smart watches, multiple clocks, breaking tasks into smaller steps, and avoiding overscheduling, can benefit anyone struggling with time management.

Lovatt has adopted these strategies, allowing herself extra time, using apps to block distractions, and tracking how long daily tasks take. She discovered that her 20-minute morning routine actually took 45 minutes when broken down step by step.

“It doesn’t work 100 per cent of the time,” she said. “But generally, I am a lot more reliable now.”

The case highlights how understanding conditions like ADHD can help those affected manage time more effectively while reminding the public that punctuality remains a shared responsibility.

Doctor shortages continue to challenge healthcare systems across Europe, driven by an ageing workforce and a declining interest among graduates in general practice.

Every year, thousands of students complete their medical studies in Europe, yet the region still struggles to meet demand for healthcare professionals. In 2023, over 66,000 doctors graduated in the European Union, equivalent to roughly 15 graduates per 100,000 inhabitants, according to Eurostat. Numbers vary widely between countries, with Türkiye producing 13,720 graduates, Germany 10,186, and Italy 9,795. At the other end of the spectrum, only 31 doctors completed their studies in Montenegro, 52 in Iceland, and 144 in Estonia.

A significant share of graduates in countries such as Bulgaria, Romania, and Latvia are foreign nationals, many of whom leave the country after completing their studies. This has turned some nations into training hubs for doctors while widening regional disparities. Romania, however, has managed to reduce doctor migration over the past decade. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of doctors leaving Romania fell from 1,500 in 2012 to 461 in 2021, thanks to improved pay, training, and working conditions.

“Health worker migration is a reality in our interconnected and globalised world, and we have the solutions to ensure it works for all parties. Countries can learn from each other’s experiences,” said Natasha Azzopardi-Muscat of WHO Europe. She added that failing to manage workforce movement fairly risks worsening health inequities and leaving fragile healthcare systems unable to cope.

Despite more graduates entering the system, shortages remain acute, particularly among general practitioners (GPs). While the overall number of doctors has grown in most countries, only about one in five in the EU work as GPs. Tiago Villanueva, a family physician and president of the European Union of General Practitioners/Family Physicians, told Euronews Health that graduates increasingly choose specialised fields, such as dermatology or ophthalmology, for better work-life balance and quality of life. He added that the solution lies in making general practice more visible and appealing, rather than simply increasing the number of medical graduates.

Europe’s doctor shortages are unevenly distributed. Austria has the highest ratio of practising doctors at 551 per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Italy and Cyprus at 535, while Finland has the lowest at 288 per 100,000.

Ageing of the healthcare workforce adds further pressure. In 2023, nearly one-third of doctors in EU countries were over 55, according to OECD data. Countries with large shares of older doctors will need to train sufficient numbers of new professionals while encouraging those nearing retirement to continue working where possible.

With a projected shortage of 950,000 health workers by 2030, Europe faces a critical challenge in balancing rising graduate numbers with the need to retain talent and fill vital roles in general practice and other essential specialties.